Manufacturing growth creates opportunity.
It can also create complexity.
More customers bring more orders. More product options create more configurations. More suppliers create more purchasing decisions. More technology creates more data. And as manufacturers expand, processes that once worked through spreadsheets, emails, and employee knowledge can become increasingly difficult to manage.
That challenge is becoming especially important in 2026.
Recent manufacturing research found that the share of manufacturers describing most of what they produce as extremely or very complex increased from 47% in 2025 to 67% in 2026. At the same time, investment in automation and AI continues to accelerate. Experian
For make-to-order manufacturers, complexity isn’t something that can simply be eliminated.
Customization may be one of the reasons customers choose you.
The objective is therefore different:
How do you manage greater complexity without allowing it to create greater operational friction?
Modern manufacturing ERP can play a central role.
What Is Manufacturing Complexity?
Manufacturing complexity is the operational difficulty created by the number of variables a manufacturer must coordinate to successfully fulfill an order.
Those variables might include:
- Product options
- Materials
- Dimensions
- Engineering requirements
- Suppliers
- Routings
- Work centers
- Customer requirements
- Production schedules
- Inventory availability
- Pricing rules
- Delivery dates
A manufacturer producing the same standard product repeatedly may have relatively predictable requirements.
A make-to-order manufacturer could have thousands, millions, or even billions of possible product combinations.
That’s a very different operational environment.
Manufacturers of windows, doors, cabinets, furniture, millwork, metal building products, and other configurable products must manage this complexity every day.
1. Turn Product Knowledge Into Configuration Rules
One of the greatest sources of complexity is the product itself.
Consider everything an experienced salesperson or engineer may need to know when configuring an order:
Which dimensions are valid?
Which materials work together?
Which hardware is compatible?
Does this option require another component?
Does a particular configuration require engineering approval?
How does the selection affect price?
When this information exists primarily in employees’ heads, complexity becomes difficult to scale.
Rules-based product configuration provides another approach.
Manufacturers can encode product knowledge into configuration logic that helps determine which combinations are valid and what is required to manufacture them.
This can help:
- Prevent invalid configurations
- Improve quote accuracy
- Reduce engineering intervention
- Standardize product knowledge
- Accelerate order processing
Frontier ERP places a product configurator at the heart of its platform specifically because configurable products create requirements that affect the rest of the manufacturing lifecycle. Friedman Corporation
2. Connect Configuration to Production
Product configuration shouldn’t end when the salesperson submits the order.
The decisions made during configuration affect everything downstream.
A product option may change:
Configuration → Pricing → Materials → Engineering → Routing → Scheduling → Production
If each department has to interpret the order independently, manufacturers introduce unnecessary manual work.
A connected ERP environment allows product information to move through the organization more consistently.
The goal is simple:
Enter information once and use it wherever it’s needed.
That reduces both administrative effort and opportunities for error.
3. Replace Departmental Silos With Shared Data
Complexity becomes much harder to manage when departments operate from different information.
Sales has one spreadsheet.
Engineering has another.
Production maintains its own schedule.
Purchasing has another report.
Finance reconciles everything afterward.
Each system may work independently, but employees must continually synchronize them.
Manufacturers increasingly recognize this problem. In one 2026 manufacturing technology survey, 49% of respondents identified simplifying infrastructure and standardizing application platforms as an important ERP outcome, reflecting a growing push to reduce data silos. Rootstock
Integrated ERP creates a common operational foundation across departments.
4. Improve Production Scheduling as Variables Change
A production schedule is easy when nothing changes.
Manufacturing doesn’t work that way.
A customer changes an order.
A supplier shipment arrives late.
A machine goes down.
An employee is unavailable.
An urgent order moves up.
A material shortage appears.
Every change can affect multiple jobs.
For make-to-order manufacturers, static scheduling tools can quickly become outdated.
Integrated scheduling provides greater visibility into:
- Work center capacity
- Current orders
- Material availability
- Production priorities
- Due dates
- Manufacturing progress
When something changes, planners can evaluate the effect using current operational information rather than rebuilding the schedule manually.
5. Manage Inventory Without Carrying Everything
Product variety creates another challenge.
Inventory.
More product configurations can mean more:
- Components
- Materials
- Hardware
- Finishes
- Purchased items
- Raw materials
Manufacturers can’t simply stock unlimited quantities of everything.
But insufficient inventory can stop production.
ERP helps connect inventory decisions with actual demand.
Purchasing teams can evaluate:
- Current inventory
- Allocated material
- Open purchase orders
- Production requirements
- Customer demand
- Supplier activity
Better visibility allows manufacturers to balance availability against carrying costs.
6. Automate the Routine So People Can Manage the Exceptions
Complex manufacturing requires human expertise.
But skilled employees shouldn’t spend their day performing repetitive administrative work.
Examples include:
- Re-entering orders
- Updating spreadsheets
- Calculating routine requirements
- Sending status updates
- Creating repetitive paperwork
- Manually transferring information between systems
Automation can handle many predictable processes while employees focus on situations that actually require judgment.
That distinction becomes increasingly important as manufacturers invest in smart manufacturing.
Deloitte’s 2026 manufacturing outlook found that manufacturers continue to prioritize smart-manufacturing technologies such as automation, analytics, sensors, and cloud computing to improve output, employee productivity, capacity, agility, and competitiveness. Deloitte
The objective isn’t removing people from manufacturing.
It’s removing unnecessary work from their day.
7. Use Real-Time Visibility to Manage Complexity
Complexity becomes dangerous when management can’t see it.
Consider an order that’s at risk of being late.
The cause might be:
- Missing material
- An engineering hold
- A scheduling conflict
- Production downtime
- A purchasing delay
If managers only discover the issue after the delivery date is missed, the information isn’t very useful.
Real-time manufacturing visibility helps teams monitor:
- Open orders
- Production progress
- Inventory
- Scheduling
- Work center activity
- Delivery performance
- Financial results
This shifts management from reacting to historical reports toward managing current conditions.
8. Build a Better Foundation for AI
Artificial intelligence is rapidly entering manufacturing.
A recent 2026 survey cited by Experian found 79% of manufacturers were either investing heavily in AI or actively exploring where it could fit into their operations, up from 64% a year earlier. Experian
But AI introduces an important question:
What information will it use?
AI cannot magically resolve fragmented manufacturing data.
If customer orders are in one system, engineering information in another, inventory in spreadsheets, and production information somewhere else, AI lacks the complete operational context needed to provide reliable insights.
ERP can help establish a more structured data foundation.
That foundation can eventually support applications such as:
- Demand forecasting
- Production optimization
- Predictive maintenance
- Quality analysis
- Automated workflows
- Operational decision support
The path to useful manufacturing AI may therefore begin with something much less glamorous:
better-connected data.
Complexity Isn’t the Problem. Unmanaged Complexity Is.
For many manufacturers, complexity is a competitive advantage.
Customers choose them because they can produce exactly what is required.
The problem begins when product flexibility creates operational friction.
More configurations shouldn’t automatically mean:
More spreadsheets.
More manual calculations.
More engineering intervention.
More mistakes.
More administrative employees.
More disconnected systems.
Technology should help manufacturers absorb complexity without allowing overhead to increase at the same rate.
How Frontier ERP Helps Manage Complex Manufacturing
Frontier ERP is designed specifically for manufacturers that design, build, modify, or assemble products to order.
Its built-in CPQ, product configuration, manufacturing, supply chain, and financial capabilities help connect the information required to manage configurable products throughout the business. Friedman Corporation
That includes areas such as:
- Product configuration
- Customer and dealer orders
- Engineering
- Purchasing
- Inventory
- Production scheduling
- Manufacturing execution
- Shipping
- Financial management
- Reporting and business intelligence
Rather than managing complexity through disconnected tools, manufacturers can create a more unified operational environment.
One Platform. Smarter Manufacturing. Stronger Business.
This is also the direction behind Frontier 5.0.
Modern manufacturers don’t necessarily need another isolated application.
They need their core processes to work together.
One Platform means creating a stronger operational foundation.
Smarter Manufacturing means using connected information to improve processes and decisions.
Stronger Business means turning those operational improvements into measurable results.
Faster quoting.
Fewer errors.
Better scheduling.
Greater productivity.
Improved visibility.
Stronger margins.
Technology only matters when it improves the business behind it.
Friedman Corporation Is at METALCON 2026
This conversation is particularly timely today.
Friedman Corporation and Frontier ERP are currently exhibiting at METALCON 2026 in Orlando, where manufacturers, fabricators, contractors, and other metal construction professionals are exploring technologies designed to improve how their businesses operate. Friedman’s current METALCON article highlights faster quoting, fewer configuration errors, better scheduling, less manual data entry, greater inventory accuracy, and improved production visibility as important outcomes for complex manufacturers. Friedman Corporation
If you’re attending the show:
METALCON 2026
October 7–9, 2026
Orange County Convention Center | Orlando, Florida
Hall South A | Booth #1500
Stop by and bring us the manufacturing complexity you’re trying to solve.
Maybe it’s configuration.
Scheduling.
Inventory.
Quoting.
Production visibility.
Or an ERP environment that no longer fits how your business operates.
Those are exactly the conversations we’re in Orlando to have.
Conclusion: Growth Shouldn’t Mean More Complexity
Manufacturers want to grow.
More customers.
More orders.
More products.
More markets.
But growth shouldn’t require operational complexity to increase at the same rate.
The manufacturers best positioned for the future will be those capable of offering customers greater flexibility while maintaining control behind the scenes.
That requires connected information.
Standardized processes.
Automation.
Real-time visibility.
And technology designed around the realities of complex manufacturing.
For make-to-order manufacturers, ERP isn’t simply where transactions are recorded.
It can become the operational foundation that makes complexity manageable.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is manufacturing complexity?
Manufacturing complexity refers to the operational difficulty created by coordinating product options, materials, engineering requirements, production processes, suppliers, inventory, scheduling, and customer requirements.
How does ERP reduce manufacturing complexity?
ERP connects information across sales, product configuration, engineering, inventory, purchasing, production, shipping, and finance so departments can work from shared operational data.
Why is product configuration important for make-to-order manufacturers?
Product configuration converts complex product knowledge into structured rules that help validate options, determine required materials, improve pricing accuracy, and provide production with accurate requirements.
Can ERP help reduce manual manufacturing processes?
Yes. Integrated ERP can reduce duplicate data entry, spreadsheet maintenance, manual calculations, status reporting, and information transfers between departments.
How does ERP prepare manufacturers for AI?
ERP can provide structured, connected operational data across multiple business functions, giving analytics and AI systems better context for generating useful insights.
What manufacturers is Frontier ERP designed for?
Frontier ERP is designed for companies that design, build, modify, configure, or assemble products to order, particularly complex make-to-order manufacturing environments.
